Systems and methods are known for tire recycling where discarded tires that are cut into pieces (tire crumb) that are processed in a reactor chamber configured for pyrolysis processing under a slight vacuum in an essentially oxygen-free atmosphere to generate carbon char, steel, and hydrocarbon oils and gases. Some of the gases referred to as pyrolytic gases or syn-gas have 4 or less carbons (≦C4) are generated when a carbon-based bio-mass is thermo-cracked have boiling points too low to condense into a liquid using conventional condensation processing.
FIG. 1 is a simplified depiction of a conventional pyrolytic tire conversion system (tire conversion system) 100 including a feed mechanism 110 for feeding the tire material (tire crumb) into an inlet 120a of the reactor chamber 120 essentially without letting air (oxygen) in the inlet. A mechanism for conveying the material through the reactor chamber 120 is provided to vaporize the tire material into vapors and for conveying solid material including carbon char and steel. The reactor chamber 120 includes a flue pipe 120c for releasing vapors generated and another output 120b for releasing the pyrolized solid material generated. The vapors exiting the flue pipe 120c include hydrocarbons having entrained ash particles.
The vapors having entrained ash particles after exiting the flue pipe 120c are cooled by a heat exchanger/condenser shown as a fuel condenser 130 to liquefy a portion of it to provide liquid fuel that is collected in a collection tank 140, with the non-condensable portion being a gas mixture generally being C4 or below which is directed to a flaring apparatus 150 for flaring these gases. The liquid fuel is generally pumped away from the collection tank 140, where the fuel may then be filtered in an additional step to remove the ash particles. The solid material generated including carbon char and steel is generally discharged from the output 120b of the reactor chamber 120 via a screw conveyor (e.g., outlet auger) 125 (which may also provide char removal) that is typically air locked from the vacuum in the reactor chamber 120 by valves or gates, and the solid material is transferred through a housing to a closed bin (recovery hopper) 145.